NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Ragan Trying To Redirect Season
The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season hasn't gone as planned for David Ragan...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted June 30, 2010   Orlando, FL
David Ragan is still searching for his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
This is not the way David Ragan would have mapped out his fourth season in Sprint Cup racing.

This was supposed to be the rebound year. Ragan had six top-fives in 2008 and was on the edge of qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Then 2009 turned into a mini-disaster as he fell to 27th in points and had only a pair of top-10s to show for a miserable season.

This year was supposed to mark Ragan’s return to a competitive footing with a change in crew chiefs (veteran Donnie Wingo came on board) and a fresh start. Instead, Ragan has struggled to get good finishes.

Although all three of his Roush Fenway Racing teammates also are winless in a season of hard labor for Ford, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards at least have the consolation of being in the Chase 12 through 17 races. Ragan is 24th.

Team co-owner Jack Roush has said he is committed to Ragan remaining with the team next season, but Ragan says he isn’t interested in giving up on 2010 to begin preparations for 2011.

“We can still resurrect this season and end up with a good season,” Ragan said. “A month ago, we (were) within 200 points of the Chase and 20th in points. We felt like we had a little momentum. But then we had a blown engine at Charlotte, got in the big wreck at Pocono, got wrecked on pit road at Michigan and got wrecked again at Sonoma.

“Our cars, our speed – we are better than we were the first couple of races of the year, but as a whole we’ve just got to race better on Sundays and not make the mistakes. There’s not one person or one part on our race cars that’s costing us. It’s not being able to wrap up the race at the end of the day.”
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Although Ragan has only one top-10 run – a sixth at Talladega – this year, he said the team’s progress is positive, even if the results are somewhat negative.

“I’ve been encouraged,” he said. “We’ve had good cars – not winning cars, but good cars. Top 10 and top 15 cars. You can make the Chase having top 10 and top 15 cars.

“We’d really have to have remarkable finishes now to make the Chase, but if we can get back to the top 15 or top 20 and contend for a few wins, that would be OK after the kind of racing luck we’ve had the last month or so.”

Waiting for results can be vexing, Ragan admitted.

“It’s frustrating, and sometimes it takes the fun out of it,” he said. “A couple of years ago it seemed to be kind of easy to run in the top 10 here and there, and you kind of take that for granted. Then you go through some struggles like we’ve had, trying to get our cars better, it’s not as fun and you realize how tough this sport really is. We’re working hard to get back there. But it’s frustrating, and it can’t come quick enough.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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